"I'll know more by this time next week, if there's anything we can do to win better this year and still not hurt us down the road. So I'm exploring, those are the only kind of deals I'd consider doing right now. Right now, I'm not ready to blow it up.”

- Meanwhile, former Celtics coach Rick Pitino is denying that he’ll be walking through the New Jersey Nets’ door as their head coach.

According to a Thursday post on the Boston.com Celtics Blog, the current Louisville skipper is denying any interest in returning to the NBA.

“It's understandable that Pitino, who coached both the Knicks and the Celtics, might seek a way out of Louisville, which happens to be in New York for a game vs. St. John's tonight. Pitino is from New York (the Nets are planning to move to Brooklyn), and also has reportedly grown weary of the attention he's received in Louisville for a sex scandal involving the wife of a former assistant.”

Pitino’s record as the Celtics head man was a dismal 102-146 over four seasons.

- Finally, CelticsHub.com’s Zach Lowe took an interesting look in the rearview, checking where the C’s were at last season’s all-star break. And although he notes that it was one week after last season’s break when Kevin Garnett’s knee injury effectively started the current rapid aging of the Green, he’s resigned to the fact that we can’t be shocked.

"... this team, right now, is completely out of sorts, and you’d be a fool to deny it. The amount of change—almost all negative—in 363 days is jarring. It’s not shocking, though. This is what the Celtics signed up for when they dealt away young talent and draft picks for Kevin Garnett.”